President’s Cup

[Tommy Williamsen]

I heard a suggestion that the squads could be made up of six men and six women golfers. That might be fun to watch. It would also make the competition closer given the international strength of the. LPGA.

[Carl Johnson]

Not a bad idea.  Would you have mixed teams in the competition?  E.g., foursome with one man and one woman on each team.

[James Reader]

I’d love to see mixed teams but failing that (and it might be a stretch to persuade the PGA Tour to share the money!) why not make it a genuine USA v Rest of the World match?  Add in the Europeans and it’d be a very different contest.

[Kalen Braley]

Not a bad idea.  Would you have mixed teams in the competition?  E.g., foursome with one man and one woman on each team.

I would say yes, in fact have both foursome sessions be mandatory mixed pairings.  Then they would really need to be strategic with pairings and who tees off odds or evens.

Terrific idea Tommy!

[David_Tepper]

The ROW team has been hurt by the LIV defections more than the US team. Losing Smith, Leishman, Niemann, Oousthuizen and Ancer certainly made the ROW team a lot weaker.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Meh. No thanks.

I watch a lot of women's golf, but meh to this. They have the Solheim Cup, which is good entertainment. And though the Presidents Cup is an exhibition of sorts, adding the LPGA to it wouldn't make sense for the PGA Tour, and it'd make it more of an exhibition and less serious. The men don't know the LPGA Tour players, they don't compete against them week to week, etc. And the course setup, etc. would be totally different (men can play to firmer greens, thicker rough, etc.).

[Kalen Braley]

Erik,

Its match play.  If ever a course didn't really matter for a Pro event, its for this.

It'd be a great opportunity to take it to a short old timey course that the PGA no longer plays...

P.S.  And which team can gel better and figure out each other's game is half the point...

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Its match play.

Wow, I didn't know that! Thank you!

If ever a course didn't really matter for a Pro event, its for this.

Course setup would still affect things quite a bit. The men hit the ball higher and farther and have substantially more speed than the women.

It'd be a great opportunity to take it to a short old timey course that the PGA no longer plays...

They have this thing already, it's called the Solheim Cup…

[Kalen Braley]

Its match play.

Wow, I didn't know that! Thank you!

If ever a course didn't really matter for a Pro event, its for this.

Course setup would still affect things quite a bit. The men hit the ball higher and farther and have substantially more speed than the women.

It'd be a great opportunity to take it to a short old timey course that the PGA no longer plays...

They have this thing already, it's called the Solheim Cup…

Erik,

C'mon man,  Solheim cup is for US and European women players only...that was one of the main points of the thread...lol

[Rob Marshall]

If Erik doesn’t like it, it must be a great idea….. they need to find a way to fix it or end it. Nothing wrong with just the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. Other than the Tiger Ernie playoff has it ever been any good?

[Matt_Cohn]

I think it’s time to add in the women – after all, as somebody pointed out, the Ryder Cup got a lot better when they made more players eligible, too.


On another note, the founders probably would’ve figured on more than one Chinese player making the team in the first 28 years.

[Wade Whitehead]

Currently, 6 of the top 8 women (plus numbers 9 and 10, too) in the world are from Presidents Cup international team countries.

Along GCA lines, what course setup considerations would arise if men and women were playing on mixed foursomes teams?


WW

[Erik J. Barzeski]

C'mon man,  Solheim cup is for US and European women players only...that was one of the main points of the thread...lol

Just skipping right over how course setup could make it really, really difficult for the women, eh? 

they need to find a way to fix it or end it. Nothing wrong with just the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. Other than the Tiger Ernie playoff has it ever been any good?

Uhm, you weren't entertained by the last one at Royal Melbourne? It was some of the best golf televised in the last five years. It was better than the Ryder Cup at Whistling.

[mike_beene]

I can’t pinpoint why I don’t care for these team events, but it has something to do with wives and girlfriends running around and maybe this playing for your country stuff. Granted it is not as bad as the War by the Shore. The people who are playing for their country are in the fight of their lives with Russia. This is just a silly golf exhibition.

[David_Tepper]

The JC Penney Classic was a PGA-LPGA mixed team event played over a 40-year period, 1960 to 1999. Past winners included John Daly & Laura Davies, Davis Love III & Beth Daniel, Tom Purtzer & Julie Inkster, Fred Couples & Jan Stephenson and Curtis Strange & Nancy Lopez. Sam Snead & Shirley Englehorn won the event in 1964.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCPenney_Classic 

Men and women did compete on the same course.

[Rob Marshall]

C'mon man,  Solheim cup is for US and European women players only...that was one of the main points of the thread...lol

Just skipping right over how course setup could make it really, really difficult for the women, eh? 

they need to find a way to fix it or end it. Nothing wrong with just the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. Other than the Tiger Ernie playoff has it ever been any good?

Uhm, you weren't entertained by the last one at Royal Melbourne? It was some of the best golf televised in the last five years. It was better than the Ryder Cup at Whistling.

No I wasn’t. When you win one time in what 20+ years, it’s a joke. Time for a tweak. How are the ratings? More people might be watching LIV. Adding women might be a great move.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

No I wasn’t. When you win one time in what 20+ years, it’s a joke. Time for a tweak. How are the ratings? More people might be watching LIV. Adding women might be a great move.

The ratings are fine (LIV got, what, 62k viewers last week?) and, more importantly, the PGA Tour is going to make plenty of money on this. They would see no reason to change this at all.

And the last Presidents Cup was quite good, so if you weren't entertained by that… then I'm not sure why you're even on GCA. Conditions were great. Tiger was a playing captain. The matches were close. The ball rolled a bunch, so angles mattered. Patrick Reed was coming off his sandscaping. Ernie created the identity for the Internationals.

Like I said, one of the best televised golf events in the last five years.

[Joe Hancock]

No I wasn’t. When you win one time in what 20+ years, it’s a joke. Time for a tweak. How are the ratings? More people might be watching LIV. Adding women might be a great move.

The ratings are fine (LIV got, what, 62k viewers last week?) and, more importantly, the PGA Tour is going to make plenty of money on this. They would see no reason to change this at all.

Just like the Detroit Lions. The franchise makes plenty of money, so no reason to change. Not sure income is the measure of success in either case here.

[cary lichtenstein]

I always thought it was "One too many events". we have the Ryder Cup for men, I think that's enough.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I find it interesting that while The President's Cup is USA VS world, minus Europe and the Ryder Cup is USA VS Europe, minus the rest of the world, The Laver Cup is Europe VS the entire world. There is no point except that I found it interesting that the USA does not field very many world-class tennis players.

[Pat Burke]

No I wasn’t. When you win one time in what 20+ years, it’s a joke. Time for a tweak. How are the ratings? More people might be watching LIV. Adding women might be a great move.

The ratings are fine (LIV got, what, 62k viewers last week?) and, more importantly, the PGA Tour is going to make plenty of money on this. They would see no reason to change this at all.

Just like the Detroit Lions. The franchise makes plenty of money, so no reason to change. Not sure income is the measure of success in either case here.

Revenues were the reason for creating the presidents cup.
The PgA controlled Ryder Cup exploded in all ways (including revenues), and the pga tour wanted to tap that well within their own control.  they also wanted to take advantage of guys like Els, Price and YES, Norman with their standing in world golf.


We laughed (when it started) that it should always be played in Florida because almost every player from BOTH teams lived there 




Like LIV, it’s a made up competition with made up team.

[David_Tepper]

"There is no point except that I found it interesting that the USA does not field very many world-class tennis players."

Tommy -

As a former (and still some time) tennis player, it is interesting to see how dominance in the game has changed and shifted over the past 60-70 years. In the 1950's-60's and into the 1970's, the Australian & USA players pretty much dominated the men's games. Then the Swedes (Borg, Edberg & Willander) were strong and challenged the likes of Connors & McEnroe from the mid-1970's into the early 1990's. Americans Sampras, Agassi, Courier & Chang were a major force in the 1990's.

So far this century the Europeans, especially from Spain and Central/Eastern Europe, have dominated the men's game. I cannot offer any reasons why.

There is now a crop of young American men who are rising in the world rankings. Eight of them are ranked in the World Top 50. Time will tell if any become dominate players.       

DT

[Tommy Williamsen]

"There is no point except that I found it interesting that the USA does not field very many world-class tennis players."

Tommy -

As a former (and still some time) tennis player, it is interesting to see how dominance in the game has changed and shifted over the past 60-70 years. In the 1950's-60's and into the 1970's, the Australian & USA players pretty much dominated the men's games. Then the Swedes (Borg, Edberg & Willander) were strong and challenged the likes of Connors & McEnroe from the mid-1970's into the early 1990's. Americans Sampras, Agassi, Courier & Chang were a major force in the 1990's.

So far this century the Europeans, especially from Spain and Central/Eastern Europe, have dominated the men's game. I cannot offer any reasons why.

There is now a crop of young American men who are rising in the world rankings. Eight of them are ranked in the World Top 50. Time will tell if any become dominate players.       

DT

I used to play a lot of tennis and loved it that I could run around. I watched some of Federer’s last match yesterday. He and Evonne Goolagong had the most elegant games I ever saw. I loved watching them. 

[David_Tepper]

Tommy -

Watching Federer play over the past 15-20 years was what inspired me to start playing tennis again 10-12 years ago. Great style matched with plenty of substance.

DT

[Tommy Williamsen]

Fun stuff this afternoon.